The popularity of family-oriented water theme parks and recreational water facilities has increased dramatically in the last decade. Water parks have proliferated as adults and children, alike, seek the thrill and entertainment of water parks as a healthy and enjoyable way to cool off in the hot summer months.
Most water theme parks, like their dry counterparts, consist primarily of ride attractions. The most popular among these are water slides in which participants slide down a wet trough or tunnel and splash down into a pool of water. As demand for such water attractions has increased, water parks have continued to evolve ever larger and more complex water slides to thrill and entertain growing numbers of water play participants. Other popular ride attractions include surfing wave simulators, log flumes and white-water rafting.
While these water ride attractions are very popular, particularly among older children and adults, a common complaint is that participants often must spend more time waiting in lines for the various rides than actually riding on them. Also, many of the most popular water rides are unsuited for small children because of the inherent dangers of drowning or possible uncontrolled collision with other ride participants.
As a result, families with small children often have to split their time between either participating in the more popular rides or looking after the small children. While most water parks have recreational facilities for entertaining small children, they are generally limited to small wading pools, miniature water slides, and static play structures. While these may be moderately entertaining for small children, they fail to entertain parents or provide the creative stimulation and interactive educational experience that captivates the imaginations of small and intermediate-age children.